Power – Lets generate strength. Importance of exercising with Power with PD.

 
Have you noticed yourself feeling weaker? There is evidence that weakness is one of the primary impairments in Parkinson’s disease. The thought behind this weakness is that there is a signaling problem from the brain to your muscles.
 
In a normal muscle our brain tells a motor unit in our muscles to move and this in turn tells the muscle fibres to contract so we can move our limbs. It is felt in Parkinson’s that there is a weak signal to the motor unit which causes inefficient recruitment of the muscle fibres and a decrease in speed of muscle contraction. This over time leads to slow movements and a loss of power in the muscles and the muscles not being used to their full potential again contributing to the slow and small movements that occur.
 
So it is important that we are bringing power back into our exercises and generating force behind our movements. And this needs to be brought into everything you do.
 
A great example is racket sports or cricket since is current the cricket world cup. If you do not put enough effort in to swinging your racket or bat the ball will go nowhere.
 
Last week we focused on amplitude and today we are working on making our movements powerful and big so I want to see force behind your big movements it will be challenging and difficult but with practice it will get easier we are working to change your brain and be at your best.